McCoy Tyner – Blues On The Corner (From the album “The Real McCoy”) [LOTW #72]
Everything in this solo is so great it all should be learned. It was so hard to take one selection but here it is. So again, everything going on here and in this album is a combination of hexatonic, meaning 6 note patterns, or pentatonic, meaning 5 note patters. McCoy will take these 5 and […]
McCoy Tyner – Passion Dance (From the album “The Real McCoy”) [LOTW #71]
Here is the first line from the McCoy series. Pretty long I know, but it was so great and it finishes so nicely I had to put it all in. I would take it apart into two sections to practice. All of McCoy’s sound comes from hexatonics. Hexatonics are a combination of two triads two […]
Herbie Hancock – The Sorcerer (From the album “Speak Like A Child”) [LOTW #70]
So here is one more Herbie line before we start looking at McCoy. Herbie has so many in’s and out’ to his lines, meaning they are bobbing and weaving all around chord tones. In the first measure he uses a nice triplet phrase with chord tones then begins to target non chord tones which sounds […]
Herbie Hancock – Witch Hunt (From the album “Speak No Evil”) [LOTW #69]
Here is an amazing line from Herbie, played in Witch Hunt. I’m going to do something different here and let anyone take a stab at analyzing this, because I’m sure it can take on a lot of different opinions. Please post your thoughts in the comments. I’m eager to hear what people have to say! […]
Herbie Hancock – One Finger Snap (From the album “Empyrean Isles”) [LOTW #68]
This line from One Finger Snap is awesome in so many ways I don’t even know where to begin. Herbie is coming from a different phrase so this one starts 5 note approach to the Bb. He has a surrounding half step approach to the minor 3rd, (Db), jumps up to the 5th, then to […]
Herbie Hancock – Seven Steps To Heaven (From the album “Seven Steps To Heaven”) LOTW #67]
Here is a famous Herbie line from Seven Steps To Heaven. To start this one off Herbie comes down a D- pentatonic, then what I love is he starts a the G7 harmonies a beat early by playing a b13 going to the 3rd of the G7 then landing on #9 on beat 1 of […]
Herbie Hancock – Dolphin Dance (From the album “Maiden Voyage”) [LOTW #66]
To kick off the Herbie series I started with simple line from Dolphin Dance. Simple yet extremely pretty and elegant sounding to play. Herbie is playing triplets that start on the 11 which resolves to a the E, a chord tone. From there he simply is moving up in thirds diatonically and repeats the same […]
Bill Evans – Minority (From the album “Everybody Digs Bill Evans”) [LOTW #65]
Here is a nice one over a 2-5-1. Bill starts his line on beat 3 in the first measure which I love. He was always so aware of the beats he started and ended his lines on. Definitely something to practice in our own playing. In this line he goes up to the b5 then […]
Bill Evans – Five (Pt. 2, From the album “New Jazz Conceptions”) [LOTW #64]
Here is part 2 of yesterday’s post continuing our line. Bill breaks back into a more bebop esque style with the second half of this line by really outlining chord tones and creating simple approaches. In this measure he approaches the third of the G7 which lands on the up beat of beat 2 funny […]
Bill Evans – Five (Pt. 1, From the album “New Jazz Conceptions”) [LOTW #63]
Now here is a serious line. This is some great language to learn over sequential dominants. Meaning, dominants that are resolving down by 5ths. Bill Evans starts out with a simple triplet line that goes up to the #11 then resolves to the 1 of the B7. From here it begins to get interesting. Bill […]